Game & Forum Discussion > Forum Suggestions & Ideas

International Board

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ThatsNotOk:
"Foreign Languages
This is an English based website, therefore you are required to have a basic knowledge of the English language, at least on the forum. This is to avoid confusion and miscommunication with the staff and with other members. If members are continuously spotted talking other languages, warnings will be given."

- Official Forum Rules

This has been buzzing in the back of my mind since had read it, and it hasn't quite fit in my monkey brain right, especially now. One of the big requirements for MOTS, or even being noticed by the moderators in general, is an active forum record. Immediately foreign players, such as the massive Slavic group of Feralheart members or the spanish-speakers who also play in considerable numbers,are barred off from being a "true" active contributee to the Feralheart discussion. Foreign players are, by this rule, punished for not fitting in.

Likewise, even if it is argued that the staff will have no value of a separate international board, it would be a place for players who speak other languages to locate each other and meet up in-game. That way, international players will feel more comfortable and have more friends to their access.

In short, all I am simply suggesting is a board section like "News & Updates" "Help & Rules" etc etc for threads in foreign languages to be placed. Several other forums, for games or for literally anything else, have done this in order to allow non-English speakers to participate. It would be incredibly valuable to the site and would help younger foreign players (or foreign players in general) feel more comfortable.

That was my TEDTalk, thanks for listening. 

Kahbloom:
I like the way you think!
This is a wonderful idea &, I think, might be able to help more people find others that speak the same language.

To be honest, the "Foreign Languages" rule just kind of rubs me the wrong way. I understand that it might be difficult to monitor multiple languages, but that rule seems like it borders on being discriminatory.

Only issue I could potentially see is... at least one staff member would have to speak the language to be able to monitor the boards, & ensure forum rules are still being followed. & what if only one staff member spoke the language? Would they be responsible for monitoring an entire board?

Although, to be fair, I believe the majority of FH's population speaks English, so I doubt it would be quite as busy... which means it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to keep track of, in my opinion.

I like this idea, though. I really don't agree with that rule, but I can understand & respect the staff team's viewpoints.
After all, they do have a lot on their plate as it is.

Jango_Fett:
i'd be down for an international board


this stuff has been sitting in the back of my mind for years.
hell, it may encourage some of the english-speakers to pick up another language in order to interact with this other part of the community.

Azurain:
Totally 100% for this.

Bawfle:
Punished is a pretty strong word. I can't say I particularly support this idea.

The reason why the game and forum are English encouraged is because it is considered a 'default' language, as it is the most spoken language across the globe.

People are not warned for not using English as punishment, people are warned in a form of encouragement and this is done politely with an explanation as to why it's encouraged if unknown.

I feel that having an international board would require international Moderators or Mini-Mods, possibly one Moderator for every language used in the so called international board. But, this is too much effort to be putting in for one small area on the board. Especially when the Moderators that run FeralHeart aren't paid to Moderate the game and forum. They take time out of their own lives to Moderate an English-Based game with very little moderation resources. There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages across the globe. I'm not saying that there are this many in Feral Heart right now, but there are already quite a few languages that are the primary language used by a handful of users in FeralHeart, such as; Polish, Russian, Spanish, French, Swedish, and Finnish.

I feel like that is already a boundary Moderators have to face in-game, taking an enormous responsibility onto the forum where it is primarily English-speaking already is unnecessary. A user who speaks very little English would not be expected to know the language fluently in order to receive help or join in on the discussion. Being able to translate their language to English through a translator is the easiest thing to do. They do not have to feel threatened by the English Language to join in, and I doubt many do feel threatened by the language considering they joined the game on an English based forum, and are presently playing in a game where a huge percentage of people primarily speak English.

I feel like the only change that could happen language wise is a language option so the board names and sub headings can be translated automatically to someone's dedicated language to aid in navigation around the forum.

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